Games practice venues not ready

Foreign teams arriving in Delhi for the Games will be scrambling for places to practise in for their events. Of the 11 venues earmarked for athletes to train, only three have submitted the necessary documents that are required to get the mandatory clearance for practise.

The managers of all the practice venues had to submit their certificates to the Games organising committee by September 20 to certify fire equipment, electricity, water supply etc, are all in place.

According to a highly-placed source in the OC, only Chattrasal Stadium (for athletics practice), Jamia Milia University (for rugby practice) and D.P.S (RK Puram) School (for Lawn Bowls practice) have submitted their documents so far.

Hindu College is another venue. Venue manager, Inder Pal Singh said, “We got our documents today. Ideally, this should have been done months ago.” Practice venues should have been ready on September 23, when the Village was opened to the teams.

An official at Daulat Ram College — another rugby practice venue — said, “The certificate has not been signed yet as the venue is still under construction. How can we sign it until the venue is ready?”

Another venue manager, Benu Gupta of Kirorimal College said, “ We are yet to receive any certificates.” Virender Kumar, Ludlow Castle venue manager, did not even know that this procedure was to be followed. “I haven't got any intimation either from the OC, or from the competion manager.” Manisha Chakravarty of Ramjas College and Praveen Kaur of Khalsa College also said there was work still to be done at their venues.